There is a way to the immortal abode and supreme
happiness. There is a way to the fourth dimension. That way is vairagya. Follow
the way. Vairagya is dispassion, desirelessness or non attachment. It is
indifference to sensual objects herein and hereafter. It is born of and
sustained by, right discrimination (viveka).
Vairagya is the opposite of attachment which binds a
man to the wheel of births and deaths; vairagya liberates a man from bondage.
Vairagya purifies the sensual mind and turns it inward. It is the most
important qualification for a spiritual aspirant. Without it, no spiritual life
is possible.
The two currents of the mind attraction and repulsion (raga-
dvesha) really constitute the world of births and deaths. A worldly man is a
slave of these two mighty currents and is tossed about hither and thither like
a piece of straw. He smiles when experiencing pleasure; he weeps when in pain.
He clings to pleasant objects and runs away from those which cause pain.
Wherever there is sensation of pleasure, the mind gets
glued, as it were, to the object that gives pleasure. This is what is called
attachment and brings only bondage and pain. When the object is withdrawn, or
when it perishes, the mind suffers unspeakable pain. Attraction is the root
cause for human suffering.
A dispassionate man has a different training and has
different experience altogether. He is a past master in the art or science of
separating himself from the impermanent, perishable objects. He has absolutely
no attraction for them and constantly dwells in the eternal. He stands
adamantine as a peak amidst a turbulent storm, as a spectator of this wonderful
world show.
A dispassionate man has no attraction for pleasant
objects and no repulsion for painful ones. Nor is he afraid of pain. He knows
well that pain helps considerably in his progress and evolution, in his journey
towards the goal. He is convinced that pain is the best teacher.
The Yoga of Renunciation of
Action - Chapter 5
Summary of Fifth Discourse
In spite of Sri Krishna’s
clear instructions, Arjuna still seems to be bewildered. He wants to know
conclusively which is superior, the path of action or the path of renunciation
of action.
The Lord says that both the
paths lead to the highest goal of God-realisation. In both cases the final
realisation of the Atman is the aim, but the path of Karma Yoga is superior.
Actually there is no real difference between the two.
Krishna further asserts that
perfection can be attained and one can be established in the Atman only after
the mind has been purified through the performance of selfless action. The
Karma Yogi who is aware of the Atman and who is constantly engaged in action
knows that although the intellect, mind and senses are active, he does not do
anything. He is a spectator of everything. He dedicates all his actions to the
Lord and thus abandons attachment, ever remaining pure and unaffected. He
surrenders himself completely to the Divine Shakti. Having completely rooted
out all desires, attachments and the ego, he is not born again.
The sage who has realised
Brahman and is always absorbed in It does not have any rebirth. Such a sage
sees Brahman within and without—within as the static and transcendent Brahman,
and without as the entire universe. He sees the one Self in all beings and
creatures—in a cow, an elephant, and even in a dog and an outcaste. He is ever
free from joy and grief and enjoys eternal peace and happiness. He does not
depend upon the senses for his satisfaction. On the other hand the enjoyments
of the senses are generators of pain. They are impermanent. Sri Krishna reminds
Arjuna that desire is the main cause of pain and suffering. It is the cause of
anger. Therefore, the aspirant should try to eradicate desire and anger if he
is to reach the Supreme.
The Lord concludes by
describing how to control the senses, mind and intellect by concentrating
between the eyebrows and practising Pranayama. One who has achieved perfect
control of the outgoing senses and is freed from desire, anger and fear attains
liberation and enjoys perfect peace.
Arjuna said:
1. Renunciation of actions, O
Krishna, Thou praisest, and again Yoga! Tell me conclusively which is the
better of the two.
The Blessed Lord said:
2. Renunciation and the Yoga
of action both lead to the highest bliss; but of the two, the Yoga of action is
superior to the renunciation of action.
3. He should be known as a
perpetual Sannyasin who neither hates nor desires; for, free from the pairs of
opposites, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he is easily set free from bondage!
COMMENTARY: A man does not become a Sannyasin by merely giving up
actions due to laziness, ignorance, some family quarrel or calamity or
unemployment. A true Sannyasin is one who has neither attachment nor aversion
to anything. Physical renunciation of objects is no renunciation at all. What
is wanted is the renunciation of egoism and desires.
4. Children, not the wise,
speak of knowledge and the Yoga of action or the performance of action as
though they are distinct and different; he who is truly established in one
obtains the fruits of both.
5. That place which is reached
by the Sankhyas or the Jnanis is reached by the (Karma) Yogis. He sees who sees
knowledge and the performance of action (Karma Yoga) as one.
6. But renunciation, O
mighty-armed Arjuna, is hard to attain without Yoga; the Yoga-harmonised sage
proceeds quickly to Brahman!
7. He who is devoted to the
path of action, whose mind is quite pure, who has conquered the self, who has
subdued his senses and who has realised his Self as the Self in all beings,
though acting, he is not tainted.
8. “I do nothing at all”—thus
will the harmonised knower of Truth think—seeing, hearing, touching, smelling,
eating, going, sleeping, breathing,
9. Speaking, letting go,
seizing, opening and closing the eyes—convinced that the senses move among the
sense-objects.
COMMENTARY: The liberated sage always remains as a witness of the
activities of the senses as he identifies himself with the Self.
10. He who performs actions,
offering them to Brahman and abandoning attachment, is not tainted by sin as a
lotus leaf by water.
11. Yogis, having abandoned
attachment, perform actions only by the body, mind, intellect and also by the
senses, for the purification of the self.
12. The united one (the well
poised or the harmonised), having abandoned the fruit of action, attains to the
eternal peace; the non-united only (the unsteady or the unbalanced), impelled
by desire and attached to the fruit, is bound.
13. Mentally renouncing all
actions and self-controlled, the embodied one rests happily in the nine-gated
city, neither acting nor causing others (body and senses) to act.
14. Neither agency nor actions
does the Lord create for the world, nor union with the fruits of actions; it is
Nature that acts.
15. The Lord accepts neither
the demerit nor even the merit of any; knowledge is enveloped by ignorance,
thereby beings are deluded.
16. But, to those whose
ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, like the sun, knowledge
reveals the Supreme (Brahman).
17. Their intellect absorbed
in That, their self being That; established in That, with That as their supreme
goal, they go whence there is no return, their sins dispelled by knowledge.
18. Sages look with an equal
eye on a Brahmin endowed with learning and humility, on a cow, on an elephant,
and even on a dog and an outcaste.
19. Even here (in this world)
birth (everything) is overcome by those whose minds rest in equality; Brahman
is spotless indeed and equal; therefore, they are established in Brahman.
20. Resting in Brahman, with
steady intellect, undeluded, the knower of Brahman neither rejoiceth on
obtaining what is pleasant nor grieveth on obtaining what is unpleasant.
21. With the self unattached
to the external contacts he discovers happiness in the Self; with the self
engaged in the meditation of Brahman he attains to the endless happiness.
22. The enjoyments that are
born of contacts are generators of pain only, for they have a beginning and an
end, O Arjuna! The wise do not rejoice in them.
23. He who is able, while
still here in this world to withstand, before the liberation from the body, the
impulse born of desire and anger—he is a Yogi, he is a happy man.
24. He who is ever happy
within, who rejoices within, who is illumined within, such a Yogi attains
absolute freedom or Moksha, himself becoming Brahman.
25. The sages obtain absolute
freedom or Moksha—they whose sins have been destroyed, whose dualities
(perception of dualities or experience of the pairs of opposites) are torn
asunder, who are self-controlled, and intent on the welfare of all beings.
26. Absolute freedom (or
Brahmic bliss) exists on all sides for those self-controlled ascetics who are
free from desire and anger, who have controlled their thoughts and who have
realised the Self.
27. Shutting out (all)
external contacts and fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, equalising the
outgoing and incoming breaths moving within the nostrils,
28. With the senses, the mind
and the intellect always controlled, having liberation as his supreme goal,
free from desire, fear and anger—the sage is verily liberated for ever.
29. He who knows Me as the
enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, the great Lord of all the worlds and the
friend of all beings, attains to peace.
Hari Om Tat Sat
Thus in the Upanishads of
the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of
Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna ends the fifth discourse
entitled:
“The Yoga of Renunciation of
Action”
Peace, Love, Harmony
